= 
May 21, 1885] 
NALGRE 
59 
had by application to Sir John Lawes at Rothamsted 
Park, St. Albans. 
The task of reviewing matter of so condensed a charac- 
ter as this is by no meanseasy. Eversince 1840, Sir John 
Lawes has carried out field and stall experiments on a 
scale well worthy of a national enterprise. Elaborate 
papers by this most enterprising of experimentalists, and 
his equally well-known coadjutor, Dr. T. H. Gilbert, have 
poured forth from Rothamsted during the entire memory 
of the present generation. During the last twenty-five 
years the scientific staff presided over by Dr. Gilbert has 
consisted of two, and sometimes three, chemists, and as 
many competent assistants, a botanical assistant, two to 
four computors and record-keepers, besides laboratory 
men. From 1847 to 1884 ninety-six memoirs have been 
contributed upon subjects bearing upon the soil, the 
plant, the atmosphere, drainage water, and rainfall, 
utilisation of sewage, animal nutrition, feeding-materials, 
manures, the occurrence of fairy rings in pastures, &c., 
&c. There is, in fact, scarcely a topic of agricultural or 
pastoral life which has not been investigated at this great 
English Agricultural station, and that through the enter- 
prise of one man. 
The Memoranda commence with a summary of rain- 
fall and drainage extending backwards to 1851. Not 
only is the local rainfall given for each month over a 
period of nineteen years, but also the amount percolated 
through gauges of 20, 40, and 60 inches in depth of 
soil, the amount evaporated, and the amount retained by 
capillary attraction in the soil. Thus, as a general sum- 
mary of the total rainfall, we find 45°3 per cent. percolated 
through 20 inches depth of soil, 47°4 per cent. through 4o 
inches of soil, 41°9 per cent. through 60 inches of soil, 
as indicated by rain- or drain-gauge, while the remainder 
is accounted for by evaporation or retention in the inter- 
stices of the soil. The averages obtained by unremitting 
observation from 1851 to 1870 are used in comparison 
with subsequent years, as in the case of the last completed 
record from September, 1882, to August, 1833. Thethree 
last columns of the tables given are devoted to the nitro- 
gen removed in solution by percolation of drainage-water 
calculated in pounds per acre, by which we see that, at 
the depths above-mentioned, from 36 to 44 lbs. of nitrogen 
per acre are annually carried down from the upper layers 
of the soil to a depth of 5 feet and more. 
One of the most attractive series of experiments, ex- 
tending now over a period of thirty years, is that carried 
out upon permanent grass-land in the Park at Rothamsted. 
Space forbids more than a most cursory sketch of these 
experiments. Like all the Rothamsted investigations, 
the first aimis practical and comparative. The questions 
asked are as follows:—What is the effect of various 
applications to grass land? Which gives the largest 
return? What is the effect upon the herbage of con- 
tinuous and of varied treatment? What is the effect 
upon the soil of long-continued privation and of long- 
continued /eedz7g with simple and combined dressings ? 
The investigation is at once chemical, physical, and 
botanical, and the change wrought in the character of the 
herbage of various contiguous plots of natural pasture, as 
well as upon the soil to a great depth, is most remarkable. 
Perhaps the chief interest in the experiments upon 
crop cultivation will still centre around wheat. Broad- 
balk field, on the Rothamsted estate, is unique, so far as 
treatment and cropping goes. In 1839 this field carried a 
crop of turnips, manured with farm-yard dung; in 1840 
it was barley; in 1841, peas; in 1842, wheat; in 1843, 
oats ; all the fourlast crops being unmanured. The field 
was, therefore, according to all farming rules, in an 
exhausted state when the first experimental crop of wheat 
occupied it in 1844. Every year since 1843 has this field 
carried wheat, and, with some exceptions, nearly the same 
description of manure has been applied to each plot. In 
this field the visitor, during the present summer, will see 
the forty-second wheat-crop growing without manure of 
any description upon the unmanured portion of the field, 
still keeping up a wonderfully uniform yield of about 
thirteen bushels per acre—or about the average yield of 
wheat-lands in the United States of America. This is a 
striking fact for those who fear the eventual exhaustion of 
our soils, Equally startling is the result from the con- 
tinued use of nitrate of soda year after year. This ferti- 
liser is looked upon by many landlords and agents with 
suspicion as a stimulator and exhauster of the soil ; and 
yet after forty-one years application of nitrate of soda, 
and nothing else, we have the astounding result of an 
average of 234 bushels per acre, or double the yield of the 
unmanured plot. And, although it is true that the yield 
of the unmanured and nitrate of soda plots is less upon 
an average from 1868 to 1883 than it was from 1852 to 
1867, yet it is equally true of the plot manured with 
14 tons of farmyard manure annually; and this fall- 
ing off is therefore probably due to a succession of 
bad seasons, more than to any actual exhaustion 
of the soil. Another striking fact brought out in these 
experiments is the excellent results achieved by applica- 
tions of artificial fertilisers as contrasted with those ob- 
tained from farm-yard manure. In the latter case, where 
14 tons of dung have been annually applied to the wheat- 
plot for forty years in succession, the very satisfactory 
yield of 33% bushels per acre has been obtained over the 
entire period. When, however, a well-compounded mix- 
ture of artificial fertilisers has been applied, a larger yield 
has been obtained. _ For example, 200 lbs. of sulphate of 
potash, 100 Ibs. of sulphate of soda, 100 lbs. of sulphate 
of magnesia, 34 cwts. of superphosphate, and 600 lbs, of 
ammonia salts, have given upon an average over the 
same long period 36 bushels per acre year by year. We 
must not draw these remarks to a conclusion without at 
least noting the interesting experiments upon barley, the 
lezuminous crops, clover sickness, root crops, and 
potatoes. The memoranda close with a synopsis of a 
series of experiments upon rotations of crops commenced 
in 1848 in order to test the effect of growing crops in ro- 
tation, instead of continuously, and so to arrive at pre- 
cise results when a system of mixed farming is pursued 
with and without manures, and in conjunction with sheep 
farming. JOHN WRIGHTSON 
RECENT EXPLORATIONS OF THE PAMIR 
a8 third fasciculus of the /zvestéa of the Russian 
Geographical Society contains three very interesting 
papers, by D. L. Ivanoff, on the Pamir, being the results 
of the expedition of MM. Ivanoff, Putyata, and Ben- 
dersky, already mentioned in NATURE. The first of these 
papers deals with the journeys of the members of the 
expedition ; the second contains the author's views on 
the orography of the Pamir; and the third gives a de- 
scription of the flora, fauna, and inhabitants of this “ Roof 
of the World.” Leaving aside the purely geographical 
part (M. Ivanoff’s papers should be translated into 
English), I shall sum up the most important orographical 
results arrived at by the author, as also his observations 
on the natural history of the Pamir. 
As to its limits, so variously determined by geographers, 
M. Ivanoff places them—rightly in my opinion—as 
follows :—The Alay Mountains in the north, the Hindu- 
kush in the south, and the Kashgar Mountains in the 
east. «As to its western limits, the following remarks 
ought to be made :—The whole of the highlands on the 
upper Amu-daria must be divided into two parts—the 
Eastern Pamir and the Western. The Eastern Pamir is 
a very high plateau, intersected by numerous valleys, 
rivers, and lakes, with an average height above the 
sea-level of 12,000 feet (from 10,000 to 14,000). These 
valleys are either separated by chains of mountains 
